This is the official forum post for Macmod:LIVE episode 19, titled Hackentoshes.

We talk about hackentoshes with our special guest Jon Fullmer, author of the book "Foundry Networks Certified Network Engineer - Official Study Guide". We share thoughts about the practice in general, and give our response to the recent Psystar hackintosh story.

Here is my opinion on the matter:Apple does need to release a mid-class desktop. However, I don't think it should be too customizable. Microsoft has had so much trouble because they are forced to support everything that comes out. The Mac platform is different in that the hardware is carefully selected so that it all works and we won't have to worry about bad drivers. The hackintoshes may work well for geeks who have the knowledge to get them to work but the average user won't know what to do. I think Psystar could ruin some of the loyalty to Apple products as they have a reliability that apple answers to, not a multitude of companies that blame each other for product failure. To summarize my point:Apple needs to open up their desktop line a bit more but they can't let go of the reins and let outside companies start making computers for os x unless they are restricted in their part usage. Even then I am not too sure that I would buy a clone over a real apple. Jus my thoughts on the issue. Have a great day.

Exactly. Now the only question is can Apple continue complete control of the systems and still gain in market shares. I think it is possible and that it is the only way we can have a good computing experience. However, I think there will still be those who need the versatility offered by a windows/linux system that can be changed and upgraded whenever, although Vista is limiting the upgrades .

I think the mentality of having to reach everyone is bad. But, being a public company, Apple has to appease the share holders, and they want to see continued growth. Once Apple hits a certain point, they are almost destined to open it somewhat. Or, enter other markets, which is what they have been doing more recently.

Offtopic:oojacoboo, we joined the same day four years and almost three hours apartOntopic:I hope for Apple's sake they don't expand too rapidly and in a way that they can't control their products. Their stores are an example of this cautious approach. They could open tons of stores and have a lot of business but have the chance of overextending their resources. Instead they have taken their time to slowly plan their deployment and I hope they continue this with their products. I certainly find an Apple computer that works and looks nice to one that is riddled with problems and has no support...I guess it all comes down to the individual.

Apple must hang onto control of the hardware that the software runs on. Otherwise you have driver nightmares.

I don't know if I agree with that. It seems like if you have a stable, well designed OS, that nothing should crash with a bad driver except the hardware in question. Obviously if it's a video card doing the crashing then you're SOL (cause you can't see anything), but mac's already have 3rd party video cards, so that point is moot.

I'd like to think that OSX would be more graceful about handling exceptions when they happen and not bringing down the whole system, which means that the blame will be rightfully placed on the company in question, not Apple.

I don't know if I agree with that. It seems like if you have a stable, well designed OS, that nothing should crash with a bad driver except the hardware in question. Obviously if it's a video card doing the crashing then you're SOL (cause you can't see anything), but mac's already have 3rd party video cards, so that point is moot.

I'd like to think that OSX would be more graceful about handling exceptions when they happen and not bringing down the whole system, which means that the blame will be rightfully placed on the company in question, not Apple.

That is a good point. OSX does support some 3rd party video cards. However, I would think that apple spent a lot of time testing to make sure the drivers work well, even if there are some bugs that is bound to happen. I don't want to see apple to and include all hard though because that may bog down the system with extra material and slow apple's release of a new os.

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